Color Matching Activities with IKEA Kids Dish Set

On a recent trip to IKEA, I picked up some new dishes for my kids.  The utensils, plates, cups, and bowls were each bagged separately for under $3 each.  I love practical learning and these have been great for color matching activities.

One way to start is to get out just the utensils, and have your child color match the fork, spoon and knife.  Then introduce the cups and have them place the utensils in the corresponding cup.  If you have everything out at the beginning, it could be overwhelming and your child could lose focus.

Match each color bowl to each coordinating plate.

Lastly, match each colored dish set together; the utensils, cups, bowls & plates.  Ta-da...as my younger daughter would say.

There are a lot of ways to incorporate color matching activities with these rainbow dishes.  A quick trip to the dollar store and you will find many choices:

Colored erasers

Chip clips

Colored popsicle sticks

Crayons

Pipe cleaners (cut in half)

Pom poms

Pom poms come in different shades of purple, green, etc.  This is a great way to talk about how colors can vary but still be in the same color family.  

To increase fine motor skills, think about introducing a spoon or plastic tweezers to pick up each pom pom.

I used construction paper and a one inch circle punch to create circles in a variety of colors.  You can see my post about color matching using egg cartons to see other ways to use the colored circles, pom poms and popsicle sticks.

Here is a photo of one of my daughters with her bed head doing a sorting activity involving beans.  

I hope this post inspires you to look in your cabinets or craft supplies to create learning opportunities for your kids from everyday items!